Casablanca
Records was started in september 1973 by Neil Bogart, who partnered with
Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris and Buck Reingold, after all of them left
Buddah
Records. Bogart initially financed the label partly through borrowing
some cash from Warner Brothers Records, who in return set up a deal to
distribute the new label's product.In
1974, Bogart was sure he and his crew could do better on their own. He
approached Warner Brothers and requested that he be released from the promotion
deal, and agreed to pay back the financial loan.Bogart
moved the corporate office to 8255 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, where
he built new buildings and styled the offices after the movie set of the
Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca. Everybody got a leased Mercedes. "If you
were cruising along Sunset Boulevard in the late seventies and saw what
appeared to be an enormous Mercedes dealership, chances were good that
you'd just stumbled upon the parking lot of Casablanca Records." In
1977, PolyGram acquired a 50 percent stake of Casablanca for $15 million. In
1980 Polygram pushed Bogart out due to accounting irregularities and poor
label performance.Afterwards,
the label had hits with Lipps Inc and Irene Cara. The label was shut down
in 1985 with the artist roster and catalogue absorbed into Mercury.After
he left Casablanca in 1980, Bogart started Boardwalk
Records.

Records and Filmworks

Casablanca distribution

Records and Filmworks

Casablanca distribution

Records and Filmworks

Polygram distribution

NB 889 -
1977toNB 993 - 1979

NB 2001 -
1979toNB 2350 - 1982

NB 2352 -
1982toNB 2372 - 1984

.............Sleeves

Range

Front

Back

Details

No 1 a

NB 852 - 1976to.

Casablanca

8255 Sunset Boulevard

Curved top

Inside glued

No 1 b

.toNB
889 - 1977

Darker
colours

Casablanca

8255 Sunset Boulevard

Curved top

Inside glued

No 2 a

NB 889 - 1977to.

CasablancaRecords
and Filmworks

8255 Sunset BoulevardOne line

Curved top

Inside glued

No 2 b

.to.

Pinkish
print

CasablancaRecords and Filmworks

8255 Sunset BoulevardOne line

Curved top

Inside glued

No 3

.toNB
2350 - 1982

CasablancaRecords
and Filmworks

8255 Sunset BoulevardTwo
lines

Later
issues in picture sleeves

Curved top

Glued left/right

..Contact
for corrections...Thanks to John
Villanova, New York for scans and info in
this section...Thanks to Jim
Ronat, Highland, Illinois for scans in this
section...